Guild of Scenic Artists: Crackling paint is one of those treatments that comes up from time to time and can throw us Scenics into a whirlwind of worry. It is a treatment that can have a stunning effect onstage and bring a grounding sense of reality to a set. Before we jump into the recipes we should have a firm grasp on the basics of paint, so that we can effectively break the rules.
6 comments:
I've been reading almost all of these Guild of Scenic Artists articles about scenic painting, and almost all of the scenic painting articles in general, and now that I've learned more about the makeup and properties of paint from Beth, the information in these articles are even more interesting. I did not realize there were so many stages to the drying process, and how much the evaporation process of the solvent makes a difference. It also emphasizes how the process really is restrained by time. Scenic painting seems almost more like a science, and a science that cannot be rushed. It is so interesting how different recipes will get you the same general paint treatment. The use of glue as a slower drying substance to create the crackle effect intrigued me. It goes to show that you do not need a fancy, expensive, specially mixed chemical paint to get this "specialty technique".
I haven’t worked with much actual scenic painting before, but it’s always worth reading about new things. I often find that it is the small things that can either break or make the illusion of reality in a piece of art. The different methods of making paint crackle seem remarkably simple, but that’s probably my lack of experience talking. I also wouldn’t have thought about how the mixture of paint and water might change the crackle pattern in the dried paint. I also wouldn’t have expected the striations to follow the paint strokes; I would have expected it to be much more random. Would it be possible to try and calculate the types of crackles that would appear given a type of paint and a glue? I’d love to see what kinds of art someone could make by trying to control the crackling. Would you do it by painting the glue in a certain pattern? Maybe I’ll try it sometime.
Scenic painting is still such an interesting topic for me! The colors and textures created by scenic artists continue to amaze me. I have never known how to make crackle textures, and I am surprised that you can use glue to add a crackle texture. I' am not sure what I would have used, but glue would not be at the top of my list. The article reads: "White and wood glues can both be used for this process, with varying degrees of crackle. This is a strictly evaporative process. A heat gun or blow dryer can be utilized, but it can take some time as the white glue is trapped beneath the Top Coat. This is by far the most popular method when polled by my peers, and everyone has their own tweak on the recipe." It sounds like the scenic artist is cooking something instead of mixing paint!
I can 100% see how helpful this article and other experiments like this could be for scenic painters! This article really reminds me of the nail art videos I watch on Youtube, which consist of nail artists and technicians trying out new nail products and techniques, experimenting with gel versus regular polish, different base coats and top coats, ways to apply the products to get different effects, etc. It is always interesting to see how different treatments will get different reactions out of products, whether they are nail products or paint products. Most products are meant to be used a certain way to get some specific look, but since they act differently depending on what you use them with, how they are applied, etc., people who think outside of the box can expand the horizons of how those products can be used. I am very appreciative of the fact that there are people out there on blogs documenting these experiments!
Crackle paint to me is such a super cool effect. I remember when it got really popular to have crackle nails and crackle-pattern phone cases, notebooks, and stuff a few years ago, and all the fascinating ways people used it then. Looking at it now as a more practical effect, the opportunities for what we in theater could make it do are endless. This article does, however, break that illusion of ease created when something gets popular and mass marketed. Crackle is finicky and all these points in the article are both a really informative how to and a warning of all the ways painting with crackle can go wrong. This guide is super comprehensive, however, and hopefully I'll be able to try it out one day, whether on a set, on some kind of art piece, or on some kind of piece for fun like the surface of furniture, a wall treatment, or as an accent for decoration in general! And maybe I'll even try painting my nails for once...
I love scenic painting articles even though I will probably never be a scenic painter. It’s really interesting to learn the techniques to make the boring, rough carpenter created scenery into the set the scenic designer imagined. It’s crazy how much a a set can change when the scenic designer gets a hold of it especially when they are truly good at their craft. This article is incredibly interesting and very in depth. Usually I feel like articles like these talk about the theory of how to do these paint treatments, but this article went farther into explaining the curing process and then did extensive testing with multiple types of glue with a 100% top coat and 50% water reduction top coat. It’s really interesting to see how different each glue makes the paint crack when there is a 100% paint layer over top and how strangely similar they are with a 50% top coat. I thought the differences would be as obvious as the 100% top coat types.
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